The journals and crankpins of automotive crankshafts are subject to wear and deterioration, and eventually may require repair or replacement. Crankshafts for diesel engines, particularly, are very expensive, and a method of repair or renewal is very attractive alternative to replacement.
In the past, weld metal has been laid down on the journals and crankpins, and the crankshaft then machined to original dimensions. I have in the past supplied, for commercial use, a welding machine which has satisfactorily carried out this process. It involved a means for rotating the entire cranksaft on a longitudinal axis which is centered successively on the crankpins and journals to be renewed. The crank is then rotated about the axis of the selected crankpin, or the journals, and a welding torch held in proximity to the rotating pin or journal turning on this axis while weld metal from the welding torch is supplied, the wedling torch being translated along the crankpin or journal, as the case may be, so that it feeds a bead of weld metal, either spirally, or in a succession of circles, onto and around the pin or journal. The pin or journal is then machined. This welding machine has enjoyed commercial success and has been used by others.
A purpose of the present invention is to provide an improved and simplified machine for the same purpose which can be fabricated far less expensively, which can be set up almost instantaneously for different crankshafts, of different crank throws, as compared with very time-consuming procedures heretofore necessitated, and which, in general, remarkably facilitates the repair procedure.